Heating and warming devices are well-known in the art of foodstuffs. Some foodstuffs are particularly difficult to heat without the cook watching and stirring to maintain the contents at even temperatures to avoid sticking, scorching, boiling over, and similar problems or inconveniences. This is particularly illustrated by sauces and gravy-type contents. It is also desirable to heat such contents without making a mess upon adjacent countertops and floors by avoiding bubbling and spattering.
Many prior devices suffer from the inability to eliminate overheating. Another problem suffered by most devices for heating contents susceptible to sticking are hot spots on the bottom of the pots or other containers or at other locations thereon. Overheating and uneven heating may cause foodstuffs being heated to stick, scorch or burn on the inside of the pot or container.
Until now, efforts to avoid the above-mentioned problems and control heat have involved what are commonly called “slow cookers”. These slow cookers keep the temperature of the inside cooking vessel relatively low and even. In many cases heavy ceramic cooking vessels have been used to keep temperatures on the inside surface even and at the desired relatively low temperature levels. The heat flux is consistently low, distributing heat to the foodstuff heating container and to the contents in a manner which requires long periods of time, such as at least several hours and more commonly during the course of a working day.
The prior art also includes relatively complex heating devices, many having various controls for temperature, time or other operational parameters. These devices, in addition to the prior mentioned failings, often suffer from their complexity. Such features have caused users to misuse the devices or suffer difficulties. Such misuse and difficulties may be due to impatience causing overheating, prematurely turning the device off, and forgetting to turn the device on or off. Inconsistent results thus commonly occur due to the uneven heating caused by prior heating apparatuses for foodstuffs and the like which cannot be heated under high heat flux.
Thus, there has been a long-felt need for a cooking apparatus which can without watching, stirring and other monitoring, heat food in a manner which avoids or minimizes sticking, scorching, burning, and preferably without spattering of the contents. These needs have been further rendered difficult to achieve because, in the case of food, there are many times when heating within a relatively short period of time is highly desired. Accomplishing the above in heating times of about one hour or less has proven to be an extremely difficult problem to solve.
It is believed that to date all prior devices suffer significantly from one or more of these problems, or others. The current inventions seek to successfully address this long-felt need without suffering from or by minimizing such problems, constraints and difficulties.